Indian stock market opens marginally up, Sensex above 82,000

Mumbai, Sep 23 (IANS) The Indian benchmark indices opened with mild gains on Tuesday amid positive global cues, as buying was seen in auto, IT and financial service sectors in the early trade.

As of 9.22 am, Sensex was trading 122.13 points or 0.15 per cent up at 82,282.10 while the Nifty added 35.85 point or 0.14 per cent at 25,238.20

Nifty Bank was down 26.30 points or 0.05 per cent at 55,258.45. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 58,686.55 after dropping 12.95 points or 0.02 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 18,293.15 after gaining 4.25 points or 0.02 per cent.

According to experts, for the Nifty index, the resumption of near-term uptrend will depend on whether the slippages stretch beyond the 25200-25000 region or not.

Early moves may retain a positive bias if above 25238, but it would require a direct rise above 25278/335 region to attract momentum, they added.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Tata Motors, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra and Axis Bank were the top gainers. On the other hand, Ultratech Cement, Sun Pharma, Trent and Asian Paints were the top losers.

In the Asian markets, Jakarta, Bangkok, Japan and Seoul were trading in green, while Hong Kong and China were trading in red.

In the last trading session, Dow Jones in the US closed at 46,381.54, up 66.27 points, or 0.14 per cent. The S&P 500 ended with a gain of 29.39 points, or 0.44 per cent, at 6,693.75 and the Nasdaq closed at 22,788.98, up 157.50 points, or 0.70 per cent.

According to analysts, the major drag on the market since the 2024 September peak is the sustained FII selling, which, in turn, is being triggered by the high valuations in India and attractive valuations elsewhere.

FIIs sold equity worth Rs 121,210 crore in 2024 and this year, they have sold equity for Rs 179,200 crore so far through the exchanges, they said.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers as they sold equities worth Rs 2,910.09 crore on September 22, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased equities worth Rs 2,582.63 crore.

--IANS

skt/na